Trojans on a mission

It wasn’t too long ago Jones Senior’s football team had been written off.

Thanks to a healthier bunch and a more collective unit, the Trojans are still going strong.

Ryan Herman / The Free Press

TRENTON — It wasn’t too long ago Jones Senior’s football team had been written off.

Thanks to a healthier bunch and a more collective unit, the Trojans are still going strong.

Jones Senior, which lost its first eight games, will take a three-game winning streak to Goldsboro tonight when it faces the Rosewood Eagles in the second round of the NCHSAA state 1A playoffs.

The Trojans (3-8) were on the verge of a winless season when, with two games left in the regular season, they decided it was time to get serious about playing football.

Three games later, those who had previous written Jones Senior off are now singing its praises.

“We prepare hard and everybody works hard,” senior defensive lineman Marques Bryant said. “I think a lot of people probably lost faith in us but we always stuck together, we always knew we could do it.”

Jones Senior had a gauntlet of a non-conference schedule that included powerhouse teams like Havelock, Kinston and Warsaw Kenan. Through the rigors of the schedule, the Trojans lost several key players to injury — so much so that at one point they suited just 14.

Now Jones Senior is healthy, not only in body but also in mind and spirit.

“I think it was a little bit of both. We had some key players that were out in the beginning that started getting healthy and were able to go now and everybody started coming together and bonding more,” Bryant said.

“We knew we had a mission to accomplish so everybody started coming together to complete the mission.”

The first mission was a road game at seven-win Southeast Halifax to open the playoffs. Jones Senior, seeded seventh in the eight-team 1A Mideast pod, knocked off No. 2 Southeast Halifax 7-6 on a night when three of the four lower seeds from the pod won their first round games.

Now that it’s do-or-die time, the Trojans don’t feel like dying just yet.

“Our feeling was go hard or go home. It’s pretty self explanatory — you either win or it’s your last game, and we don’t want to quit right now,” Bryant said. “We’re not ready for football season to be over with.”

The Trojans will take on an Eagles squad that, much like their opponent, is peaking at the right time.

Rosewood (4-7) has won three of its last four games and scored at least 33 points in each. A powerful running game has been its credit, which is something sophomore linebacker Nihkee Jones said must be stopped.

“We just have to keep outside containment and clog up the middle and stop (them),” Jones said.

While the Eagles’ offense has been solid, so has the Trojans’ defense. In its three-game winning streak, Jones Senior has allowed 12 total points.

Jones isn’t worried about the defense playing up to its potential. Also a running back, he’s hoping the offense can once again break through.

“We just have to go in there with our game plan, run the ball hard, do everything hard, catch every pass (and) just take it to the house,” Jones said.

Compared to what happened in 2011 — a 10-5 year, a 1A Eastern Regional title and state 1A runner-up — the Trojans still feel this season has been a success.

And they’re not finished.

“I’d say a success because if you look, when we were 0-8, everybody pretty much counted us out and had already put us in our on grave,” Bryant said. “So for us to be able to band together and have to win the last two games (of the regular season) and we pulled it out, then escape the first round — everybody thought we was definitely going to lose that — and to be able to make it here I’d say the season would be a success.

“But it’s not over yet.”

Ryan Herman can be reached at 252-559-1073 or Ryan.Herman@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter: @KFPSports.